BUSH EASES CONTROLS ON SPY SATELLITES

13 May 2003

"The Bush administration is significantly loosening controls on commercial spy satellites, allowing them to capture images with high enough resolution to show people on the ground and using them as a much greater resource for national security organizations," USA Today reports."In 1994, President Clinton signed a directive allowing U.S. companies to sell commercial images taken from space on a restricted basis. Clinton's policies limited these businesses to images of about 20-inch resolution, too big to show a person, and severely limited exports of satellite technology by U.S. companies. The new policy will allow these exports, subject to approval by Defense and foreign policy officials."